Peddlers Cross wins Champion Hurdle prep
The Victor Chandler Morebattle Hurdle took place at Kelso on Thursday, over a distance of two miles and two furlongs and was open to participation of horses of four years old and above.
The Hurdle was postponed several times before a Thursday was finally decided as the day that the race took place. The fixture also happened to be a prep race for Peddlers Cross who remains invincible still, by scoring a smooth and easy victory in the Morebattle
Hurdle, and is obviously making no mistakes in practicing for the Stan James Champion Hurdle.
Trained by the able Donald McCain, Peddlers Cross is one of the trainer’s best racehorses and has been taking a break from racing, ever since he emerged as the victor in the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle, for a fairly lengthy period of 82 days.
However, the horse performed brilliantly and in complete harmony with jockey Jason Maguire, proving to all and sundry that he is still very much a formidable horseracing opponent by staying well ahead of the other hopeful participants in the Hurdle. Peddlers
Cross, a favourite for the Morebattle Hurdle at odds of 1-6, sailed easily along the track and towards the finish post and bagged the class 2 fixture, leaving other horses behind with as much as 11 lengths of distance between the runner-up and himself.
Fans and connections of the champion hurdler have been given reason to worry though, due to the clumsy stiffness of Peddlers Cross on the run-in which led to Stan James demoting the racehorse down to odds of 6-1, from 5, for the Champion Hurdle.
Sponsors Totesport and Paddy Power have neither increased nor decreased his odds; Peddlers Cross remains unchanged at 5-1 as joint-third favourite for both of them. Another horse with the same odds as Peddlers Cross is Coral who has managed to bump himself
up from 9-2 shot.
Trainer McCain was not worried about Peddlers Cross’s performance, though he admitted that halfway up the run-in, the horse seemed to lose focus. He said that he is still proud of the horse as he had been getting ‘stale’ at home due to lack of practice,
yet managed to do quite well.
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